What Does the Burqa Really Symbolize

The burqa in today's society is often viewed as something bad, and as a form of oppression for women.  However to some women in society who have experienced having to wear the burqa, it can take various different meanings for them rather than just a way for their husbands to have power over them.  In the Middle Eastern Society women are forced to wear burqas to cover themselves with completely because of the Taliban law.  This allows a way for men to be able to have control over their wives, because nobody is able to see the women under the burqas.  The burqa can be a way for women to hide and be forgotten about if they cannot be seen.  Often times it presents the submissiveness and imprisonment of a wife to her husband as seen in A Thousand Splendid Suns.  Neither Mariam nor Laila had to wear a burqa until they married Rasheed, and when they agreed (or were rather forced) to put it on, they were then under Rasheed's complete control and were hidden away from the rest of society.  On the other hand however, a burqa can simply just be form of modesty that women use for a religious purpose.  In my life, knowing a few women who have left their abusive husbands in the Middle East and came to America, some of them still chose to wear their burqas even though they were no longer forced to.  They felt that by wearing the burqa even after they did not have to still allowed them to keep their standard of modesty.  They saw their head coverings as not much else other than their religious dress code.  In fact, they enjoyed wearing it because it also allowed them to keep a part of their culture and faith with them after they had to leave.  Since the burqa can clearly have two totally opposite np meanings, it leave the question to society as to whether or not a woman wearing a burqa is really a bad thing that oppresses them or if it is something that a Muslim woman wears for comfort and modesty.  Personally, I fell that it will always be somewhat oppressive no matter what meaning it has to the person who is wearing it.  I commend people who keep modesty as a valued standard in their life, as it is also a valued standard in my life.  However, I also believe that one should embrace their body and not feel the need to hide it to that extreme to the whole world.  To me I feel that by completely concealing yourself to the rest of the world and hiding yourself from society, it would be difficult to embrace life to the fullest if you always shy away from parts of it.